(212) Notice Regarding Patent and Trademark
Rights in the Russian Federation
Representatives of the Russian Federation met with representatives of
the U.S. Government on Monday, February 24, 1992, at the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office. The Russian delegation sought information about the
operation of the U.S. patent and trademark systems and provided
information about the treatment of inventions, industrial designs,
utility models, trademarks, service marks, and appellations of origin in
the Russian Federation.
Following is the text of a statement from the Chairman of the
Committee for Patents and Trademarks (ROSPATENT), outlining the status
of industrial property protection in the Russian Federation and the
plans for the future.
INFORMATION
by the Committee for Patents and Trademarks
Due to the fact that the draft laws on patents and on trademarks were
approved in the first hearing by the Supreme Soviet of the Russian
Federation and taking into account numerous questions of domestic
inventors, foreign patent offices and patent attorneys, the Committee
for Patents and Trademarks (Rospatent) of the Ministry of Science,
Higher School and Technical Policy of the Russian Federation hereby
informs that:
1. Until the Patent Law and Trademark Law become effective, the
provisions of the USSR Laws on Inventions, Industrial Designs and
Trademarks, that are adopted as the normative base by the States party
to the Provisional Agreement on the Industrial Property Protection, as
signed in Minsk on Dec. 27, 1991, are applied in the territory of the
Russian Federation.
According to the Provisional Agreement, the Russian Federation, as
well as the other States party to it, recognizes the validity of titles
of protection issued earlier pursuant to the USSR Laws in the territory
of the Russian Federation.
Rospatent has submitted to the Government of the Russian Federation
its proposals on issuing a normative act which is to certify the
adoption by the Russian Federation of the said obligations arising out
of the Provisional Agreement.
2. The applicants, who have filed applications for inventions,
industrial designs and trademarks with the former USSR Gospatent, may,
without losing the priority dates, wait until the Provisional Agreement
on the Industrial Property Protection becomes effective, the Interstate
Patent Office is established and its working procedures for issuing
interstate titles of protection are elaborated.
3. In accordance with the abovesaid proposals by Rospatent, as
submitted to the Government of the Russian Federation, any applicant
wishing to obtain a patent (a trademark certificate) of the Russian
Federation will be given the right to seek, on the basis of an
application filed, for provisional protection in the territory of the
Russian Federation.
Such provisional protection will be granted to inventions, industrial
designs and trademarks claimed in the applications in respect of which
the examiners have taken decisions on the possibility of issuing patents
(certificates), and will last from the date when the data on an
application are published in a special gazette to the date of issuance
of a patent (certificate) of the Russian Federation.
The provisional protection in the territory of the Russian Federation
will not impose legal barriers to obtaining, by the applicant, an
interstate patent (certificate) after the Provisional Agreement on the
Industrial Property Protection becomes effective. The priority date will
still be considered as the date of filing the application either with
the former USSR Gospatent or with Rospatent, with due regard to the
conventional priority.
4. According to the Provisional Agreement on the Industrial Property
Protection signed on Dec. 27, 1991, an inventor's certificate issued in
the former USSR may not be exchanged for patents of the individual
States party to the Provisional Agreement. The question of exchanging
inventor's certificates for interstate patents will be finally resolved
in the course of developing and concluding an Interstate Convention.
In this connection, Rospatent does not exchange inventors'
certificates for patents if a petition to this extent was filed after
Dec. 27, 1991.
V. Rassokhin
Chairman of Rospatent
Copies of unofficial translations of the draft laws referred to in
the statement are available from Box 4, U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office, Washington, DC 20231. the charge is $4.00 to cover the cost of
duplication. Checks should be made payable to the Commissioner of
Patents and Trademarks.
March 2, 1992 HARRY F. MANBECK, Jr.
Assistant Secretary and Commissioner
of Patents and Trademarks
[1136 TMOG 216]